Summary:
Paraffin, Vermont, is known the world over as home to the Grosholtz Candle Factory. But behind the sunny retail space bursting with overwhelming scents and homemade fudge, seventeen-year-old Poppy Palladino discovers something dark and unsettling: a black room filled with dozens of startlingly lifelike wax sculptures, crafted by one very strange old lady. Poppy hightails it home, only to be shocked when one of the figures--a teenage boy who doesn't seem to know what he is--jumps naked and screaming out of the trunk of her car. She tries to return him to the candle factory, but before she can, a fire destroys the mysterious workshop--and the old woman is nowhere to be seen.
With the help of the wax boy, who answers to the name Dud, Poppy resolves to find out who was behind the fire. But in the course of her investigation, she discovers things in Paraffin aren't always as they seem, that the Grosholtz Candle Factory isn't as pure as its reputation--and that some of the townspeople she's known her entire life may not be as human as they once were. In fact, they're starting to look a little...waxy. Can Poppy and Dud extinguish the evil that's taking hold of their town before it's too late?
My Thoughts:
I loved Croak, so when I saw this, I decided to read it, and I don't regret it at all. Not only is the story really well written and interesting, but the fact that people are turning themselves into wax versions of themselves to live longer (and of other people to see what it's like being them) is pretty creepy. It also sounds like it would make a great anime, but that's a bit off topic. The fact that her best friend got replicated was a twist I never saw coming, and Dud being good then evil but actually good the whole time, was a little confusing, but i think if he stayed evil the story would have been longer, and I wouldn't be writing this review right now...but it would have been an interesting part.
My Rating: 5 stars
